Future Champions [Rising Stars]

History:
Bomber was a BW B-teamer for the team eSTRO, alongside alot of the current lineup of TSL - Trickster (Tester), Fruitdealer (Cool) and Killer (SangHo). Back then known as NsP_Fancy and never had much success, he was only seen in a couple of team league games and never successfully qualified for the OSL.

First appearance:
ST_Bomber, despite being a known player as a strong player by most top Korean players did not manage to qualify for any of the GSL Open Seasons or GSL January. Bomber's first GSL appearance was in the February Team League and was called upon in the Finals against opponents IM. Bomber was thrown against his opponent IMLosira on Lost Temple. For GSTL enthusiasts they can probably recall what happened in this game, a comedy of BM's from both players.

Bomber and Losira spawn on close positions, with Bomber at the 6 o'clock position and Losira at the 2 o'clock. Bomber goes for a 1 Rax, Command center into 3 Rax build. While Losira manages to scout what Bomber is doing exactly due to a lack of wall from Bomber and then after completing his hatchery he throws down a Baneling Nest and starts mass producing lings with some banelings morphing.

Losira attacks catching Bomber completely offguard and begins wreak havoc in the base of bomber.



After the onslaught from Losira Bomber is left with a measly 17 supply, consisting of 11 SCV's, 1 Tank and 3 marines. Bomber having completed siege mode turtles up while Losira backs off and begins to tech up.



Losira makes an error where he makes an extra baneling nest. Bomber having enough units now pushes out with tanks and marines and Losira does not have much to deal with it.



Bomber gets his revenge by dancing his marines after his successful push and continues to put the nail in the coffin and win his GSL debut match over Losira for his team in a crucial game.

Accomplishments:
Aside from his Flash-like win rates Bomber has a few other accomplishments under his belt which include winning the Code A of GSL and making his way to Code S status by defeating FOXLyn 2-0 the first time he managed to qualify.

Non-GSL related accomplishments include winning the SK Gaming Asia Champions Trophy over other players such as LosirA, HuK and teammate Ace. TLPD Link

In an in-house tournament played for iCCup Invitational he defeated his teamates and faced July in the finals to be crowned champion. In a separate even run by iCCup Bomber was pitted against international fan favourite White-Ra for what was meant to be one series but turned into two separate series. Despite the problems Bomber managed to beat WhiteRa both times with ease, defeating WhiteRa 4-0 and 4-2. Bomber vs WhiteRa Showmatch

Looking to the future:
Bomber is one of four Korean's being sent to MLG in accordance with the MLG / GSL Exchange Program, marking his first international performance (as well as three of the other Koreans being sent to MLG). Bomber has been given a grand opportunity to prove himself as he has been submitted into Group C, deemed as 'The Group of Death'. His opponents for Pool play will be SeleCT, IdrA, Ret and Tyler, all well known foreign players. If he does manage to come out ontop of his pool play then he will have to play the stars of the other Pools, this coming MLG is looking quite daunting.

While the MLG trip will be an extraordinary chance for Bomber to increase his fan base and show off his skills to the rest of the world, he has an intense battle before he leaves Korea. Having successfully passed through the Round of 64 in the GSL Super Tournament he will have to face zerg giant and Champion of GSL May, NesTea in the Round of 32. If Bomber manages to pull out a win against the monsterous Nestea he will look quite formidable going into MLG as this will surely be one of the toughest and most anticipated matches to occur in the GSL Super Tournament.

History:
Alicia does not have any existing history in regards to progaming and can be seen as a completely new face. The only information about him was cited by Artosis in a GSL cast that was him stating that Alicia was a player that was picked up by SlayerS and he improved immensely due to practicing nearly 14 hours a day.

First appearance:
Alicia's first performance was no where near as grand as Bomber's was, no it was even underwhelming. Like Bomber, Alicia made his debut in the February Team League, where his team, SlayerS, were matched against ZeNEX.

After BoxeR and Ryung were taken out by JJun (then HyeJun) Alicia was sent out in an attempt to salvage the situation. At this point Alicia was very unknown and the only thing known about him was the fact that he was #5 on the KR Ladder.



A little bit of light pressure coming from Jjun puts Alicia behind and the terran player retreats and expands, while Alicia expands at the same time. A pretty uneventful game as the transition to mid-game occurs. Alicia looks to go for a 2base timing attack, but his units get caught by Jjun and stimmed bio tears through his forces putting him even further behind.



Jjun does critical damage and pulls back to his bunkers and waits for Alicia to decide what to do. Alicia continues to throw down more gateways, while Jjun makes more bunkers to ensure he cannot die. Alicia's forces gather outside his opponents base and makes a very all-in attack.



Alicia moves in, throws up his guardian shield and moves back in hesitation after suffering a barrage of attacks from the units inside the bunkers before deciding to go for the attack. He chooses poor forcefield placement, placing them in-front of the bunkers effectively nullifying the effect of his zealots.

Jjun defends the attack and masses up some units and moves across to kill Alicia.
Alicia's debut was no where as entertaining or impressive as Bomber's. It is possible to attribute the questionable decisions to nerves but the game displayed by Alicia was not a proper measure of the skill that he would display in the upcoming season.

Accomplishments:
His accomplishments are sufficiently less then those of Bomber's. Alicia maintain's a 60% win rate in each match-up, while not as impressive as Bomber's is still far above average and shows that he is a well-rounded player.

His GSL and GSTL performances since his debut have been quite impressive. In his first season of qualifying for the GSL (March) he made it to the Round of 4 of Code A, losing to oGsSupernova. The most shocking match of his initial season was that he was to face the Game Genie Terran, MVP, to gain Code S status and managed to win over him 2-1 to advance to Code S for GSL May.

Come GSL May, Alicia was set to face Losira in the Round of 16 after coming out on top of his Round of 32 Group after defeating Zenio, MarineKing and NaDa. Alicia failed to defeat Losira as Losira used very heavy zergling roach aggression to which Alicia was overwhelmed and defeated 3-0.


Alicia was seeded against oGsMC and going into the match TL.net's Liquibet's showed that only 13% of people thought that he would be able to win over MC. Alicia with some amazing micro was able to 2-0 MC causing a huge upset so early in the tournament, showing that he is a force to be reckoned with.

Looking to the future:
While Alicia is not going to MLG like Bomber and MMA, it just gives him more time to focus on the current Super Tournament. Having taken series off of MVP and MC and a win off of NesTea in the Team Leagues he has proven that he can stand up to each of the current champions.

His round of 32 opponent will be ZeNEXByun, an opponent drastically easier then MC. Hopefully we can look forward to Alicia making his way into the Semi's or Finals.

History:
MMA was on the team SK Telecom 1 with the name 1988 and never had any success. Coming into Starcraft 2 before being scouted by BoxeR to join SlayerS he was known as CchapSeungEu on the ladder and was commonly near the top of it, but never successfully qualified for the GSL until GSL March. MMA has also been known as CchapSeungEu, Jjob, Jjobsu, M before finally deciding on MMA.

First appearance:
MMA's first appearance was also in the GSTL as he had not successfully managed to qualify for the GSL much like Bomber and Alicia.

In GSTL February against ZeNEX MMA was sent out after Boxer, Ryung and Alicia all fell to Jjun. While his debut was quite astonishing it was easily forgotten due to the underwhelming performance of the rest of his team, which lead to the SlayerS team being underestimated in the next team league.

MMA, the Team Captain of SlayerS was send out as the last beacon of hope to try and bring SlayerS back from the brink of humiliation. With play that can only be described as solid, nothing spectacular but nothing poor, MMA was a man on a mission trying to carry his team into the Round of 4 of the Team League. One by one MMA defeated the ZeNEX players, first taking down Jjun who had crushed the rest of the SlayerS lineup. The second player to be sent out by ZeNEX was Puzzle, while unknown in the GSTL / GSL leagues had managed to single handedly get victories over IM and oGs by performing all-kills for his team.

MMA crushed through Puzzle and then Byun who was sent out as the third player. MMA simply beat his opponents by outclassing them in straight up macro games. There was no cheese factor for a cheap win. He was trying to salvage a victory for teams and he did not want to rely on a risky all in and instead relied on his own skill.

The final game was against Hack and things could not have gone more disasterously for MMA. MMA gets unlucky and loses his banshee because of a light marine push moving across the map for Hack.



The marines move into the main of MMA and run right past the bunker and takes out a crippling amount of SCV's almost extinguishing the light of hope of the team SlayerS. MMA cleans up the attack by pulling all of his SCV's but is left with only 12 SCV's to the 27 of Hack.

It becomes an uphill battle and while MMA did his best to make the game go as long as he did he was never able to catch up and eventually lost to Hack. Even though MMA's debut looked glorious with a 3-1 record, it would be tainted as it was a win in the battle but not the war.

Accomplishments:
The win rates for MMA are a bit more skewed for MMA in comparison to Bomber and Alicia, with a 100% win rate in TvZ which can be attributed to his incredible multi-tasking abilities, but only just over 50% in TvT and TvP.

MMA has made a name for himself as being the anchor and team captain of SlayerS. Taking out opponents in crucial moments to ensure victory for his team, and a lot of the teams success can be accredited to him for taking two consecutive GSTL's.
In GSTL March he overcame opponents such as MC, July on the path to the finals and in the final match of the finals he was sent out to take down the TvT monster, MVP. In a constant back and forth game he managed to claim a win for his team and create a Cinderella story for his team, the team that no one expected to win managed to defeat the intimidating team of monsters, IM.

In GSTL May MMA was called upon to only play in three games in the whole span of the league but they were integral as SlayerS faced elimination in the Semi-finals, being down 2-3, with fOu only needing 1 win to move onto the finals. MMA took out GuMiho and sC was sent out and defeated in a closely matched game. The finals of the GSTL once again came down to a 9 game series where MMA was sent out as the Ace player against GSTL newcomer DongRaeGu who had taken out players such MarineKing, NaDa, SuperNova and MC to get his team to the finals. MMA overcame his opponent to lead SlayerS to their second GSTL championship.

While his GSTL success has not directly translated over to his individual GSL performances he has managed to improve in the two seasons he has participated in. Achieving Code A: Round of 16 in GSL March, and managing to get to the Round of 8 in Code A of GSL May, making it to the Up/Down Matches. He failed to defeat his Up/Down opponents HuK and MarineKing forcing him to remain in Code A for another season.

Looking to the future:
MMA will join Bomber, Moon and Losira over the next coming weekend to attend MLG. He will complete against KiWiKaKi, mOoNan, SjoW and Sheth in Pool B in an attempt to gain good seeding in the championship brackets. This will mark his international debut, hopefully he will be able to show some success in his individual play and place well in the Championship Bracket.

MMA is also still in contention for the GSL Super Tournament, having defeated FOXLyn in a closely matched and entertaining series in the Round of 64. Before flying out for MLG he will play against oGsSupernova!